Your Double Edged Sword….

I once heard someone say that having a mental health issue or addiction is like death buy a thousand tiny cuts, but what if it was really a double edged sword. A sword that uses you, but that you can also use?

AHH now you’re thinking hmmm whats this.

A lot of whats experienced in mental health and other struggles, for me at least is all about balance and perspective, if you dont balance the blade properly or you hold your sword the wrong way, well you get the picture. Now I am not trivialising the struggle and many factors that can mess with your recovery, but what if you could react differently to even one small aspect of one issue?

How would you act if you knew you could succeed, think small and win big!

Even if you only achieve this once, on one tiny situation that normally throws you off you will most likely feel the benefit.
The very thing thats killing you, could kill itself. For me my anxiety disorder is a double edged sword its the very thing that has almost drove me to give up on everything but its also the very thing that has got me through difficulties when I was younger, two degrees mid-way and my chosen career in now. Its the fire in my belly. The voice that says it’s scary out there! Do not leave the bubble you have constructed for yourself, that nervous energy that promises so much yet runs you into the ground and risks losing it all also says, many times whispers, but what if I can hold it together?? What if I take this deep desire to be who I am warts and all and give back to the world, to myself, what if this works, what if I can make something amazing out of what I have went through and experienced. What if this is part of something bigger?

And now you’re thinking, yeah right!, but you don’t know what I’ve done, what’s happened to me and you know what I don’t, but YOU do, only you can look at this differently, tap into that power to survive.

Reflection is a great way to do this, difficult and painful yes but worth it! Now I am not talking about getting that stick out and beating yourself round the head with it, or any other body part for that matter. I am talking about self-compassion, objective reflection, what was your role in the situation or issue that’s plagued you? What could have went differently, if the conclusion you come to is that too many external factors or pressures were stacked against you, that’s ok too, and you will know if you’re lying to yourself, ah ah no, leave that guilt stick alone! (p.s. we ALL lie to ourselves) Remember we are looking at this for a slightly separate perspective, stand back, and look again, that’s better! You can’t change some of the nature and nurture you went through in the past, you can’t control others now but you can look at yourself and you can take that fire and desire to be better and use it.